PM to join The Battle on Snow Street

[Ennisa]

31st Winter 519 AV
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"Ahahaha, petch it! I've been hit again!" Ennisa laughed breathlessly and wiped the excess snow from her hair. Her cheeks were ruddy red from the cold, the tips of her hair were soaking wet, and her hands were freezing. Yet, despite the uncomfortable temperature, she laughed. Itzi was also laughing hysterically beside her, a look of utter joy across her face. Even the boy was laughing with little hiccups, his chubby face lit up with childish happiness. All were soaked in snow and sweat; out of breath, both warm and cold at the same time. Their laughter echoed off the nearby houses, which drew attention to them, but they were far from alone in their mirth. All across the city, other such gatherings were occurring, with jollity spilling out across the city, and snow flying left right and centre.

Why, you might ask, was the city in such high spirits? The answer to this question came in the form of something white, something cold, something that was currently flying in a neat arc behind the unsuspecting trio still laughing on the street...

Thunk! "Argh! Snowball incoming!" Itzi spun on her heels and dived towards the nearest drift, her hair flying out in a demented poof of red as she swooped to grab a loose handful of snow. Ennisa was a little slower to start, but soon followed suit. The child strapped to her front cocooned into her as she scrabbled to form a snowy projectile. She moulded it hurriedly as she kept a look-out for the stray snowball thrower, but he or she was nowhere to be seen.

"You ready, Itz?" Itzi nodded, a glint of playful fire in her eyes. "Uhuh, let's get him!" Together, the two of them roared and clambered over the heap of snow to confront the person who had thrown the snowball, except... "What the..-?! Where are they?" Itzi looked around and carefully tossed the perfect snowball she'd just created back and forth between her two hands. "Dunno." She cleared her throat, and bellowed, "OY! Come out, wherever you are!"

Suddenly, a sound to their right. Ennisa spun round to look, her eyes darting into the shadow between two sets of houses. Then, before she could react... thud, snowball in the face. She blinked and spat and cursed, then wildly threw her not-so-great snowball in the general direction of the projectile. To her surprise, she got a hit. Itzi yelled with delight and rushed forwards. "You got her, you got her!" Ennisa had just cleared her eyes in time to see her friend gathering more snow to pelt the young woman, who was kneeling to create her own arsenal. So. She means to stand her ground. Ennisa's grin widened into something more than a little maniacal, and she began to pile a whole heap of snow into her palms.

She knew that she and Itzi could defeat this lone ranger, no problem. In fact, they had already done so a dozen times already that morning. They had come to this particular street to take a little breather, but apparently that had been temporarily foiled. Or rather, perhaps it wasn't temporary. To her dismay, she began to recognise the background sound that had been approaching for a few ticks. Crunching snow. Footsteps, and fast!

From over the top of the rapidly compacting snowdrift, three more Lhavitians came screeching over the top, raining snowballs down upon them. Ennisa squeaked in a very undignified manner, and ran towards Itzi with the baby bouncing in front of her. "C'mon, we've gotta go!" They ran, their feet sliding on the slush and snow, as they rounded the corner to escape the four attacking Lhavitians.

credit : Ines

[Ennisa]

"speech"
"others"

It was war. Plain and simple. And the female stranger had now found an enemy in Ennisa and Itzi, who begrudged having fallen for such an easy ambush. The two of them, plus baby, ran far and fast through the snow, hearing the laughing taunts of their fellow Lhavitians falling behind them. Ennisa's ears and face burned with the cold, and also with embarrassment. Itzi was also red-faced, though that was more likely because she was more susceptible to the cold, being a red-head. Eventually, as they ran out of breath, they skidded to a slippery halt on the edge of a street that eventually lead to the back of the warren that was the Azure Market.

"Those sneaky bastards." Itzi fumed. "Tricking us like that! Did you catch a look? I think I'd be able to recognise them, if I saw them again. What do you reckon, Enn?"
"Oh, this is war alright." Ennisa swept her bedraggled hair from her face and clapped Itzi on the shoulders. "We'll get our own back." The two began to plot and plan. A few locals scampered past, squawking and hooting with glee as snow flew this-a-way and that-a-way, but the two friends were ignored for the most part.

The plan was formalised, and it was a mean plan. Itzi was the lure, to dangle tantalisingly close for the rival gang to catch. Ennisa was the sniper, hiding in the shadows, with a hardy stockpile of projectiles to unleash upon their unsuspecting prey. The plan also protected the baby from the worst of the snow, so long as Ennisa kept her cool. Which... "Of course I'll keep by cool. Cool it," she stuck her tongue out at Itzi, and smiled.

The red-head winked, stuck her thumbs up, and rolled up her sleeves. [color=#8c373f]"Wish me luck!" She riposted over her shoulder, then began to retrace her steps. A lot of their plan relied on their enemy being in a similar position to the one they'd left them in, so Ennisa shouted after her friend, "Good luck!", and really, really meant it. With one final wave, Itzi disappeared around the corner and was gone on her leg of the mission.

She was alone now, with just the baby to keep her company. Ennisa shuffled the wrappings a little so the arrangement was more comfortable, and peered down at her son. His little face was puckered with the cold, and she spent a little time, a brief fragment of time to rub his arms and kiss his head and murmur a few words of comforting nothingness. He began to wail, a thin sound that was thankfully muted by the cloth and the deadening snow. Nevertheless, his glow was a strong one, and reflected off the bottom of her chin.

By now, Ennisa had gotten used to this glow, so she merely kept one warm(ish) hand on her baby's back, and shush'ed him softly, whilst the baby whimpered and grizzled. She introduced baby to blanket, and as he started to chew the glow began to fade. Good. She smiled, then began her portion of the scheme.

A couple of kids, probably only twelve or so, sauntered past with a lazy, troublesome swagger. Two boys, drenched in snow. This was a good sign. Ennisa stepped out and strode confidently up to the kids, who looked at her with cocked eyebrows and wary stares. "How'd you two like to stage an ambush?"

credit : Ines

[Ennisa]

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They exchanged glances. The shorter one who was endowed with a set of impressively glowering eyebrows squinted at Ennisa, then at the pile of snow balls she'd been piling up. She could almost see the cogs whirring. A snap decision was made. "Sure. I'm in! We're in, right Anton?"
"Who are we ambushing?" Anton replied. Ennisa's face brightened. "Just some petchers who hoodwinked me and my friend. She's gone to lure them in to this street, and that's when we'll pounce. Can you both make a few snowballs now, nice and hard? It'll be a bit of a waiting game, but it'll be great fun when they come. I promise."

Anton nodded and headed to the nearest patch of snow. The other kid, the one who she presumed was the more bossy of the two, sniffled and wiped his nose on his sleeve as he stepped closer curiously. "Why's your kid glowin'?" Ennisa levelled a stare at the boy. "I'd say that's none of your business. Look, go over there, kid. That's a good hiding spot, plenty of snow for you to chuck at them when they come. Quick!"

He trudged off to the place she'd pointed at, a barrel of frozen water with a pile of convenient snowdrift behind it, though he looked a little disgruntled. Ennisa hoped she'd not been too harsh; it would be a bit of an inconvenience if he and Anton got bored and wandered off before the fight started properly. Besides, she was sure they'd enjoy the ambush once it happened. She knew she would.

She settled into her own nook to wait as patiently as she could. She could hear Anton and his friend chatting quietly from their respective hidey-holes, and briefly thought she should quieten them for the true element of surprise. Then she remembered the enemy would be running, most likely, chasing Itzi, and she dropped the thought. Let them talk, it was doing no harm. She continued to make a cache of snowballs. By now, her fingers were beginning to get cold, so she warmed them under her armpits with a wince.

Then to her relief, she could hear footfalls. Pounding closer. She whispered harshly at the two boys she'd recruited, "Get ready! They're coming!" Then promptly remembered something else, something important. "And don't you dare aim for the shorty red head! She's on our side!" Anton nodded, and the other one grinned and stuck his gloved thumbs up in an innocent, childish gesture. Ennisa grinned in response, her heart warmed by their enthusiasm.

The group was running closer. Ennisa could hear yelling, a kind of frustrated shout that satisfied her. What had Itzi done? She hunkered down and scooped two snowballs into her hands, ready to throw. Her eyes scanned the entrance to the street, and then Itzi skidded into view, her face beet-red. She was closely followed by four equally out of breath Lhavitians. The front-runner was clearly the one who'd tricked them before. Itzi grinned maniacally and bellowed, "NOW!" and Ennisa struck.

The first two snowballs landed wild. Her two recruits were a little more successful with their aim, the aim of two confident boys who knew what they were doing. Ennisa was spurred on by their wild shrieking of delight and began scooping up her own ready-made snowballs to pelt at their aggressors. The next few hit the mark, one on the back of a shaggy-headed man, another square on the woman's cheek, causing an outraged squeal. Ennisa crowed, "Hah!" and began to hurriedly create more snowy projectiles. The targets had apparently decided it was worth staying to fight and were trying hard to concentrate as snow flew left, right and centre across the narrow street.

Just in case, Ennisa yelled through the blizzard of snow to Anton, the more wiry of the kids. "Get behind 'em Anton! Cut 'em off!" Whether the boy heard her or not, she wasn't sure. Her attention was suddenly taken by Itzi, who'd reached her and grabbed her arm. "I... I... nicked..." She was panting so much that Ennisa couldn't really hear what she was saying. She needed to move, anyhow, as one of the irate group was getting closer, with an impressive armful of snow to dump on her. "Tell me later Itz, we need to fight!"

credit : Ines

[Ennisa]

"speech"
"others"

"Listen!" Itzi was frowning now, even as she was rapidly making her own snowballs to hurl at their attackers. "They won't leave us alone now, because I stole supplies!" A snowball, expertly thrown, sailed through the air and thunked Ennisa's leg. "Petch off!" She threw the insult through the air and chucked a lumpy snowball in the rough direction it came from, and was rewarded with a muffled yowch!

"What?" It was bedlam. She could hear Anton and his friend screeching with laughter as they pelted the foursome with snow. Apparently, they didn't seem to care about getting hit themselves. Itzi was recovering from her run, and had plunged her hands into the convenient snowdrift against the side of a house to create her own arsenal. Nevertheless, despite the plentiful distractions, Ennisa gaped at Itzi. "What!"

Itzi beamed. "Check my pack." There was a certain amount of smugness in her voice. Ennisa did. She pulled the bag off Itzi's shoulders and opened it to reveal a virtual treasure trove. Cake, wrapped in oiled paper. Fruits tied with string. A bag of candy. Even a bottle of something, wine perhaps. "Oh, you beaut!" Ennisa pelted a little snowball past Itzi's shoulder. It landed firmly on the chest of the woman who'd initiated the whole thing, who was approaching steadily, annoyance writ plain on her tan face.

"Give it back, thief!" Itzi scooped up an armful of snow and compacted it into a loose but huge snowball. She wrinkled her nose, considered, and threw... "Nope! 'Tis ours, now. Finders keepers!" Ennisa giggled. "C'mon Itzi, let's escape. We had some help, I'll call 'em. Can you run again? Let's lose them."

She nodded. The angry woman was getting closer and closer now, getting ready to grab the bag. Ennisa fastened the straps tight, just in case, and handed it to Itzi who looped it tightly onto her back. "Hey, Anton! Kid! Cover our backs!" With that, and the gleeful agreement from the children, she and Itzi dashed from their position against the wall, past the woman who lunged to grab the bag from Itzi. Ennisa yanked her outstretched arm down, which unbalanced the woman, who fell gracelessly onto the street. Ennisa earned a face full of an opponent's snow ball in response, but it was worth it. She gathered herself and ran after Itzi, squealing with amusement as she ran, her heart pounding with excitement.

Anton and his friend were good, and rained a hail of snow and sleet over the defeated group. They shouted expletives after Ennisa, Itzi and their newfound allies, but didn't bother to chase. What would be the point? They were beaten and exhausted, covered in snow, drenched, and hungry. Ennisa and her friends had won. Their relentless youth was on their side. Ennisa was dead certain they would get rewarded.

After a decent span of running through the slippery streets, their small group stopped underneath an old, twisted conifer to catch their breaths back. Lhavit echoed with the sounds of crunching snow and flying snowballs, but it seemed they'd found a quiet spot on the slopes of the mountain. Itzi introduced herself to Anton and the other child, who it turned out was called Louis. She withdrew her backpack and proceeded to dish out the goodies within. Ennisa picked a bit of sweet, crumbling cake and snarfed it back eagerly. The sugar hit the spot. They kept the bottle for themselves and opened it carefully. It was incredibly frothy so half was wasted on the ground when they opened it.

Anton and Louis wandered away when the bottle was opened, snacking on their stolen goods well-earned. Ennisa and Itzi settled down to chat and rest under the tree as they shared the bottle together. It turned out to only be some cheap plonk, but it was good enough nonetheless. Warming. They proceeded to get pleasantly tipsy, and spent the rest of the day sauntering through Lhavit, feeling on top of the world, and on top of their game.

credit : Ines

[Baiya]

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